The in-built character set on the BBC Micro is a reasonable compromise where the main requirement is legibility for listings, data display, etc. For word processing, using Wordwise and the Canon PW-1080A printer, many more text styles and mixtures of text styles are available, one of the more popular being NLQ or near letter quality.

Simulated Print Quality Roman is not such a compromise. This font was designed to produce a print-out as near as possible to typesetting, using Wordwise. Since Wordwise does not take into account the widths or letters, some Wordwise functions will not work correctly with it. In particular, Wordwise cannot justify right margins in proportional spacing mode. SPQR sets unidirectional printing to avoid a slightly ragged left margin which is not usually noticed with the built-in NLQ font.

The number of characters per inch produced by this font is between 16 and 17, depending on the letters used. A line length of 67 characters, for instance, will be found to give most lines within a four inch measure.

Most importantly, SPQR can only be used if the Canon printer has had the PCG Ram (a 6264 Ram chip) fitted as an extra (cost about £9) in socket IC3 and its switch SW1-5 set to ON. The font is supplied on disc rather than Eprom so that you can make adjustments to it for special purposes. A program for designing your own characters is also included on the same disc. There are a number of changes from the standard NLQ font, the most obvious being that the £ sign is at character 96 and the - sign is at character 35 to match the keyboard.

The instruction leaflet supplied is not as clearly worded as it could be, but anyone familiar with Wordwise should experience little difficulty. Loading takes about ten seconds and is well worth the wait. The print quality is quite exceptional, even for the Canon printer, and is ideal for producing formal documents and business letters. My only criticism is that the spacing between adjacent letters with vertical sides as in the d and r in drove or the m and m in immediately is too small and can slightly disturb the rhythm.

SPQR is an excellent utility, capable of giving the highest quality printed text, and it should make an extremely useful addition to any serious word-processor's repertoire.